There are two settings for the Chapa Dashboard:

When the Dashboard is in Test mode, none of the functionalities that merchants use to do business can send or move actual money.  All transactions and operations are done in ‘TEST MODE’ and DO NOT involve actual money.

Live Mode: In this mode, actual money can be accepted and transferred.

The goal of Test Mode is to establish a secure "sandbox" environment where you can test out different features without worrying that you'll unintentionally spend real money. Before promoting new features, it's a wonderful area to test out new tools and observe how user-facing features seem.

Everything real occurs in Live Mode. Payment indicates that money has moved from someone's bank account into yours when it appears on the Live Mode dashboard